Dell brings 16:9 Vostro A860 notebook to US
updated 08:20 am EST, Fri November 14, 2008
Dell Vostro A860 in US
Fulfilling an earlier promise, Dell has quietly made the Vostro A860 available for the US. The system is one of Dell's only 16:9 aspect ratio notebooks but, unlike other extra-wide notebooks, is targeted at the entry level that might otherwise consider a netbook; its 15.6-inch, 1366x768 screen is its stand-out feature, while most components skew towards the low end.
A base system is only slightly more expensive than an Inspiron Mini 9 at $379 after discount ($448 normally) and comes with a 2.13GHz Celeron M, 1GB of memory, a 120GB hard drive and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive. Other pre-built systems upgrade to Pentium dual-core and ultimately Core 2 Duo chips as well as 2GB of memory, larger hard drives and a full DVD burner.
Dell notably sheds the option for Ubuntu Linux that non-US countries receive and gives buyers the choice of either Windows XP or Vista as the default. A860 orders placed today should ship late this month.
